David Ogden Stiers, the Emmy-nominated actor who first found widespread fame playing Major Charles Winchester on the TV series M*A*S*H and who later voiced many characters in animated Disney musicals, has come out in an interview with a gay gossip blog.
Television and voice actor David Ogden Stiers has come out of the closet at age 66.
According to PopEater, when recently asked by the Gossip Boy blog if he was gay, Stiers succinctly said, "Yes, I am. Very proud to be so."
Stiers starred as the stuffy Dr. Winchester on the last five seasons of the popular '70s sitcom M*A*S*H*, and lent his voice to numerous animated films like Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
"I could claim noble reasons as coming out in order to move gay rights forward, but I must admit it is for far more selfish reasons," Stiers said. "Now is the time I wish to find someone and I do not desire to force any potential partner to live a life of extreme discretion for me."
The actor explained why it was difficult for him to come out earlier in his career. "From the late 1980s until about seven or eight years ago, you would find certain individuals coming up to you, me, and advocating the position that since we were doing family fare that it would be best were the actors to maintain a certain palatability to parents. These parties likely had heard rumors or harbored suspicions about me and wanted to make sure no embarrassing incidents were forthcoming," he says.
Television and voice actor David Ogden Stiers has come out of the closet at age 66.
According to PopEater, when recently asked by the Gossip Boy blog if he was gay, Stiers succinctly said, "Yes, I am. Very proud to be so."
Stiers starred as the stuffy Dr. Winchester on the last five seasons of the popular '70s sitcom M*A*S*H*, and lent his voice to numerous animated films like Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
"I could claim noble reasons as coming out in order to move gay rights forward, but I must admit it is for far more selfish reasons," Stiers said. "Now is the time I wish to find someone and I do not desire to force any potential partner to live a life of extreme discretion for me."
The actor explained why it was difficult for him to come out earlier in his career. "From the late 1980s until about seven or eight years ago, you would find certain individuals coming up to you, me, and advocating the position that since we were doing family fare that it would be best were the actors to maintain a certain palatability to parents. These parties likely had heard rumors or harbored suspicions about me and wanted to make sure no embarrassing incidents were forthcoming," he says.
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